The new statistics were released on Tuesday, 23 February, which shows that the unemployment rate has increased by 1,7% when compared to the third quarter of last year.
This makes the latest percentage the highest since the start of Quarterly Labour Force Survey in 2008.
The number of unemployed persons also increased by 701 000 to 7,2 million compared to the third quarter of 2020, the report shows.
The number of discouraged job-seekers increased by 235 000 (8,7%), and the number of people who were not economically active for reasons other than discouragement, decreased by 1,1 million (7,4%) between the two quarters, resulting in a net decrease of 890 000 in the not economically active population.
Despite this not all is doom and gloom as the number of employed persons increased by 333 000 to 15 million in the fourth quarter of 2020.
Also read: Degree to Disagree: The Answer to Youth Unemployment Lies in Entrepreneurship
Employment increased in all sectors in the fourth quarter.
In the formal sector employment increased by 189 000 (1,8%); informal sector employment by 65 000 (2,6%); private households by 76 000 (6,8%), and employment in agriculture increased by 2 000 (0,3%).
Employment increased in all industries, except finance and mining.
The industries which gained the most jobs were community and social services (170 000) and construction (86 000).
Compared to fourth quarter of 2019, employment contracted in all industries.
Most job losses were observed in finance (256 000), community and social services (241 000) and manufacturing (230 000).
In the third quarter of 2020 youth unemployment reached an all time high of 61,30% and this does not sit well with most young people.
Christinah Thema (28) says government needs to do more when it comes to creating employment and opportunities.
“The government needs to do more than creating temporary employment such as teaching assistant vacancies.
“They always say that the youth needs to start their own businesses, but how do you start your own business without capital.
“However I was comforted a bit when I heard the minister of finance, Tito Mboweni during his budget speech mentioning the youth funding opportunities,” she stated.
Journalism graduate Anwen Mojela (25) says that the stats causes panic to most graduates like herself, who are looking to enter the job market.
“I have just completed my studies and I’m currently looking for employment and this scares me, because I want to be financially independent.
“It is very discouraging, because we study so that we are able to get a job and not sit around and become the statistics,” she concluded.
